A murder suspect fugitive from Puerto Rico was taken into custody overnight after a chase that ended with him being found in a pool bathroom at a home in North Bay Village, police said. North Bay Village Police Lt. Jim McCready discussed the case, while the man living at the home where Jesus Rodriguez Velez attempted to hide described his surprise in Spanish about the moment when police came rushing through the yard. (Published Thursday, Aug. 22, 2013)

A murder suspect fugitive from Puerto Rico was taken into custody overnight after a chase that ended with him being found in a pool bathroom at a home in North Bay Village, police said.

Detectives who worked the case said they got a tip and started surveillance on Jesus Rodriguez Velez, 27, who was hiding in the neighborhood.

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North Bay Village Police said that he is wanted in a homicide case in Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico Police said he is wanted by the municipality of Caguas on armed robbery and battery charges and weapons violations. He was one of the 10 most wanted fugitives in Caguas, according to police.

Police pulled over the vehicle Rodriguez Velez was in on the 79th Street Causeway at about 12:39 a.m., but he got into a scuffle with an officer and took off running, police said.

“He fled on foot across the street into North Bay Island where he tried to seek refuge in a house by breaking into a bathroom there – the pool area,” said North Bay Village Police Lt. Jim McCready.

A K-9 handler sent his dog into the bathroom by the pool where Rodriguez Velez had sought refuge on the 7800 block of Miami View Drive, and the dog very quickly brought him out, police said.

Officers from surrounding communities helped apprehended the suspect. After being treated for minor injuries, he was taken to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center where he is being held for the U.S. Marshals Service, police said.

The local charges Rodriguez Velez faces are one count each of burglary of an occupied dwelling, resisting an officer with violence and resisting an officer without violence, according to online Miami-Dade Corrections jail records. It wasn’t immediately known whether he has an attorney.

North Bay Village Police listed Rodriguez Velez's local address as 7525 West Drive #25.